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Memi Koupa - Phenomena (Environment). Back

Artwork Description

The insights and emotional reactions of the sociodrama participants’ as recorded and

presented through the ΤΤ8 platform provided enlightening input for the work showcased

Here.

 

Specifically, the role-playing process of each recorded session - the act of embodying Otherness - has inspired me to create a human-centric series of video art.

Furthermore, listening to the sonification of the sessions led me to choose a minimalist and more abstract visual approach, a tone of voice similar to that of the recorded sounds.

 

My focus is on the humans of Eleusis and their collective experience as citizens and

members of a community that is trying to recover from trauma and redefine an identity.

Looking through a lens of empathy as the subjects are being ‘reflected’ into each other, is at

the core of the work.

 

My first step in the creative process was to look at a variety of locations, that would convey

the storytelling with a single frame.

In every chosen location Eleusis is manifested not as the backdrop but rather as the

epicenter of the human experience.

 

Each video consists of a single composition – an objective shot, where a human procession

appears in the frame to tell its story through a simple gesture.

The camera looks at its subject from a distance but the gaze is not detached, it is definitely

inclusive. It becomes witness to the collective drama.

 

The switch of roles amongst the participants, which is a crucial aspect of the socio drama

process becomes the closing act in each video of the series.

Very early in the process, I felt that in every composition the human action should be

presented through a manipulated sense of time.

 

Not only because it would contribute to creating dramatic and emotional tension, but

mainly because it would also highlight our subjective experience of time – time that stands

still, time that moves too fast or too slow, time then and time now, a sense of time referring

to the different eras of history and our memory.

Time is the crucial element that reveals and connects like a living tissue every single

fragment of the existence of Eleusis in our collective unconscious.